Daily Archives: May 8, 2006
At his blog for the Daily News, Adam Rubin pulls an excerpt from his book, “Pedro, Carlos and Omar,” which recalls the trade of Victor Zambrano for Scott Kazmir during the summer of 2004…
…for those who want to continue to lament this trade should read this excerpt, which captures the essence of why this deal was done…also, while Rick Peterson gets much of the blame, according to rubin, and many others, it is the team’s former super-scout, Bill Livesey, who is to blame, as it was Livesey who initially signed zambrano when with tampa bay…
In Newsday, Jon Heyman writes that, although Kaz Matsui is playing well, the team continues to shop its second baseman in a trade knowing that Anderson Hernandez will eventually return from the disabled list…
Hernandez is currently playing in Single-A as he rehabs a bulging disc in his back…
This is why a hot start, even at the expense of so-so teams, like the Marlins and Nationals, is so key, because when the injury-bug sucker punches a baseball team in the gut, it can weather the storm without falling behind…
The Mets sit at 21–10 with a four game lead in the National League East over the Phillies, who have won eight in a row…
Our former leader, Bobby Valentine, repeatedly told the media, “You’re never as good as when you’re hot, and you’re never as bad as when you’re slumping.”…
Agreed. The Mets are not as good as a 110 win team, as they are on pace to be; the Phillies will not go undefeated between now and the rest of the season, as it appears they are capable of doing; and the Braves, who have played a ton of games on the road and have had a series of significant injuries, will not continue on their path to 90 losses…
However, the Mets have built in a cushion to handle a bump in the road, such as losing three starting pitchers in one week. What’s more, they have an offense that can score runs in a variety of ways; a relaxed, focused clubhouse; a manager who stresses hard work and winning; a bullpen that is the best in baseball; and a General Manager who is always at work to upgrade his team…
On a day when the state of the team feels a tad uneasy, it’s good to remember that they’re coming off their second consecutive series win against the Braves, and sport the best winning percentage in the National League and have the largest lead of any team in first place…
It’s early, as most anyone in baseball will remind you, which is all the more reason to be thankful for the Mets hot start, because they’re clearly going to need it…
According to Jon Heyman in Sunday’s Newsday, the Mets and LHP Tom Glavine installed another option to his current contract, meaning the pitcher could end up pitching for the Mets again in 2007… The option is worth $11 million, which includes $3 million of his 2006 salary that the pitcher agreed to defer so the team could keep its 2006 payroll under $101 million… In the Daily News, Adam Rubin cites an ‘insider’ as saying he believes Glavine will return. However, should Glavine decide he wants to return to Atlanta the team will grant him his request by declining the option… …wow…frankly, with the way glavine is pitching he is worth $8 million for another season, and it would mean his 300th win would come as a met, which, honestly, should have come this season had he not had such a shoddy team behind him those first few years…
According to multiple reports, and a variety of buzz, the Mets will use Triple-A RHP Jeremi Gonzalez, followed, again, by RHP Jose Lima, during the coming turn of the rotation…
RHP John Maine and RHP Brian Bannister, both on the disabled list, are not likely to return for at least another week…
The team’s manager, Willie Randolph, told reporters on Sunday that he has no interest in disrupting his bullpen for the sake of the rotation, such as making Darren Oliver or Aaron Heilman a starter…
…i think i agree…
…it’s tempting, especially since heilman wants so badly to return to the rotation…however, Billy Wagner has not been stellar, and when you consider how shaky the rotation is now, the bullpen is more valuable than ever…if the team decides to change its position and start heilman, i’d be cool with that, as well…i can see it both ways…all i’m saying is that if i were at the helm, i would wade through this rotation situation as best i can for the next week or so, and take solace in knowing how solid the bullpen has been…
Meanwhile, Mets GM Omar Minaya dismissed the idea of promoting Double-A RHP Mike Pelfrey, who is currently on schedule to pitch for Binghamton on the same day as Lima will for the Mets. Minaya was less dismissive when asked about Double-A RHP Alay Soler…
Speaking of Soler, at Shea Baseball, Joe gives the hard-sell on why the team’s best option could be Soler, who is 3-0 with a 0.79 ERA in 34.2 innings pitched at Double-A and Single-A this season…
…again, i’d wade through this, but at some point, pelfrey has to be an option…maybe not now…i can except that…but after a few more starts in double-a, if he’s successful, and the mets are still without a consistent solution, pelfrey has to be seriously considered…
On the trade front, the Los Angeles Times cites two sources as saying the Dodgers plan to contact the Mets to see if the team has interest in acquiring LHP Odalis Perez, who is due $9 million this season and $10 million next season…
In six starts for the Dodgers this season, Perez, 28, is 3–1 with a 6.90 ERA. He has allowed six or more runs in three starts, yet has allowed less than one run in the other three starts…
…perez is essentially Victor Zambrano…it’s the same type of headache, he’s just younger, a lefty and making more money, which is guaranteed…
…the early buzz from los angeles is that the dodgers do not want much, as long as a team will take on all of perez’s salary…
Lastly, back on May 1, At MLB.com, Marty Noble suggested that the team could turn to acquiring another starting pitcher via trade, such as Brewers RHP Tomo Ohka…
In today’s Daily News, Adam Rubin writes that Nationals RHP Tony Armas could b e available, as well…
…my guess is that the nationals, as always, will be looking for an outfielder, such as OF Victor Diaz…
In Newsday, Ken Davidoff writes that Marlins LHP Dontrelle Willis “is the answer.” Davidoff feels the team should acquire Willis, even if it costs OF Lastings Milledge…
…willis is probably the only above-average pitcher on the market, if he’s even on the market at all…it’s just way too early for team’s to cut bait on pitchers such as A’s LHP Barry Zito, Giants RHP Jason Schmidt or Cubs RHO Greg Maddux…for starters, these teams need to still sell tickets, and the summer hasn’t even started yet, and b) when you consider how well the wild card teams have done in the playoffs, these days there is more reason to stick it out than ever before…
During Saturday’s win over the Braves, Mets RHP Victor Zambrano removed himself from the game due to pain in his elbow…
According to multiple reports, the team then placed Zambrano on the 60-day disabled list with a tear in his flexor tendon, saying he will miss the remainder of the season…
He will soon have surgery to repair the tendon and hopes to be ready for next season’s spring training…
In case you forgot, Zambrano had Tommy John surgery in 1996, and was diagnosed with tendinitis in his elbow during the weeks prior to being traded to the Mets for the team’s top pitching prospect, LHP Scott Kazmir. This never stopped the trade from happening, though, prompting the team’s pitching, Rick Peterson, to make his now famous quote about being able to fix the pitcher in “ten minutes.”…
…ten very, very long minutes…
Zambrano, as quoted by a variety of newspapers…
“I haven’t been pitching a very healthy game from the first time I got traded… “I can win 15-20 games. It was hard for me to not have the opportunity to be 100 percent healthy, to prove what I can do… “I want to try and let [the fans] know I can do a good job, but I was never feeling good to pitch the way I know I can…Maybe they can understand a little bit more and have a better relationship… “I know they put out a big effort, and it was a big trade the Mets did for me. So I thought I could go through all this pain. It only got worse… In the Daily News, Adam Rubin cites Mets GM Omar Minaya as saying the team was never told by Zambrano about any elbow pain… …so what are we saying here…then-GM Jim Duquette traded the team’s top pitching prospect for damaged goods…and then the kid lied about it because he wanted to impress the fans, who boo’d him even when he was doing well… …unreal…i’m speechless… …the thing is, i’m not at all surprised by this…nothing about this trade shocks me, from the soap opera that surrounded it from the get-go to zambrano’s performance after the fact to all the Al Leiter interjections to the off-field allegations about kazmir…frankly, i’ve been over the whole kazmir element…what’s done is done…my focus over the last year or so has simply been just how painful it is to watch zambrano… According to Bob Klapisch in the Bergen Record, “everyone” in the clubhouse, except Minaya, Peterson, and Willie Randolph, knew Zambrano was suffering in pain… Pedro Martinez, as quoted by Klapisch… “You guys ask for so much. You ask for velocity. You ask for performance. You ask for so many things. Some of us handle it better than the others. Some of us can’t handle it like this. Sometimes nobody gives him a chance, which is totally unfair.”… …how about he tries his best because it’s his job, one he is being paid quite handsomely to do, by the way…we ask for too much?…oh, please…if he doesn’t like it, then quit and go get another job… …listen, i don’t wanna kick the guy while he’s down…so i’ll let it be…but, honestly, and i hate to say this, but in a small way, i’m glad to turn the page on this kid…i hope he recovers and goes on to have a fantastic career, but i hope he does it elsewhere…it just can’t happen here…i mean, i just don’t think it’s physically possible… More from Zambrano… “Always I go through some soreness. I just keep on working. I was feeling I could go through. But when I threw my last pitch, I knew it was over.”… …buddy, it never even started…
